A sintered body including cubic boron nitride (hereinafter also denoted as “cBN”) as well as Al2O3, a Zr compound and the like has been conventionally used in a tool such as a cutting tool (International Publication No. 2008/087940 (PTD 1), International Publication No. 2012/029440 (PTD 2) and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2013-039668 (PTD 3)).
In addition, ZrO2—Al2O3-based solid solution ceramics have been used in various types of ceramics components (International Publication No. 2012/153645 (PTD 4) and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2014-189474 (PTD 5)).